Beaver Creek 02/10/2014 Photo Album

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve skied fresh untracked powder since I began skiing forty years ago, and fresh untracked powder is defined as a minimum of four inches of fresh snow overnight. In order to be able to enjoy this experience roughly four main factors need to merge simultaneously. First, there needs to be heavy overnight snowfall, enough to add four inches to the packed snow already on the ground. Second it needs to be a day when I am not already committed to work or some other activity. Third, the driving conditions cannot be so severe as to preclude driving to the destination ski area, and lastly I need to be lodging close enough to the ski area so that I am able to reach the ski lift before it begins running.

Skiing fresh untracked powder does not include finding out-of-the-way stashes several days after the event in glades or expert terrain or in places where strenuous hikes are required while carrying one’s skis on one’s back.

Amazingly Monday February 10 was a day when the confluence of all of the above factors occurred, and I enjoyed skiing some fresh untracked powder at Beaver Creek in the morning. Five inches of fresh snow piled up Sunday night into Monday morning, and Jane and I were staying at the Timbers at Bachelor Gulch as guests of Jane’s sister Judy and husband Bill. We were in the enviable position of being located in a ski in, ski out condo, so we made plans to get up early enough to be in the lift line before 8;30.

Dave’s Solitary Tracks Through Fresh Powder on Grubstake

We ate a light breakfast and hustled to put on our boots and jumped in our skis and poled over to the Bachelor Gulch express lift and took our positions fourth in line. Sure enough when the lift opened at 8:30 we were on the fourth chair, and we were whisked to the top of the Bachelor Gulch area. It was still snowing quite heavily when we skied off the chairlift, but the snow was easily five inches deep and my heart raced at the prospect of encountering fresh untracked powder. Grubstake was my trail of choice as it was probably the steepest intermediate trail that would get me to the Beaver Creek Express.

Large Powder Covered Moguls at Bottom of Ripsaw

Jane elected a different path that Y’d off to skier left, and I was on my way down Grubstake right below the chair. What fun! I floated on the puffy soft powder and hooted and hollered to my heart’s content as I was by myself with only an occasional occupied chair infringing on my solitary entertainment.

This was really the only pure untracked run of the morning, but Jane and I continued across the ski area to the Rose Bowl and Ripsaw where we found more sparsely tracked powder that added to our euphoria. Once we skied Ripsaw we were at the extreme eastern end of Beaver Creek so we worked our way back across the mountain toward Bachelor Gulch, and by now most of the runs were tracked out as skiers appeared in increasing numbers.

View of Moguls Blanketed with Fresh Snow on Screech Owl

I analyzed the trail map and hypothesized that the last places to get tracked would be the black and double black runs on Grouse Mountain, so I asked Jane if I could make one run there before we returned to the condo. She approved of my plan, but decided that she would bypass the expert venture and remain on Larkspur while I searched for steep powder, and we would meet again at the Larkspur lift.

Off I went up the Grouse Mountain lift and the slopes below did indeed appear to be largely untracked with copious amounts of snow converting the large moguls into small mounds commensurate in size with prairie dog hills. Once I disembarked on the summit of Grouse Mountain I chose Screech Owl as my trail for descent as it plunged immediately off to skier right, and it seemed most of the skiers were heading toward Raven’s Ridge below the chair. It turned out to be a great move as the steep upper portion of Screech Owl was largely unmolested, and I bounced over and through the large moguls topped with soft white stuff in a rare euphoric state that I will label “powderstruck”. First tracks on fresh snow remains an experience to be cherished.